Monday, March 31, 2008

Sometimes, when you feel like the cold, windy, wet weather will never go away, you take whatever "sunshine" you can get. This was the window display at Winston Flowers last week.

I actually took this photo because this is the angle I saw when I walked by on my way to the T stop, and my first reaction was that it looked like an little monster face...it just happens that when it's grey and gloomy out, it's nice to find a little sunshiney surprise hidden in your image archives, right?!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Saturday, March 29, 2008

This is an old photo, but I went through almost every photo in my (digital) archives this morning* and remembered how much I love it. I took this photo when Whit and I were meeting up for lunch and a photo adventure one afternoon. I thought the clouds looked amazing. I showed it to her when she showed up, and she laughed, pulled out her camera, and showed me these photos she had taken earlier in the day.

That's the Old South Church, a UCC church at the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston in Back Bay. The T sign is for the entrance/exit to the Copley stop on the green line.

On a personal and slightly related note - if you're in Boston and need a good massage, just behind me in this photo, on the 2nd floor, is Boston Bodyworker. See Stephanie, and tell her that Sarah and Whit sent you. You will not regret it.

* Yes, my eyes are very tired and dry right now. I need a break from the computer screen now!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Remember that wedding at the State Room where I got to show you some awesome shots of Faneuil Hall from above? One of those shots was this - same subject as yesterday's photo, but slightly different angle!

And yes, that ghost-like shadow on the right is my dress reflecting in the window...oops!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

I've shown you some of these guys before, but I absolutely love watching them get their dance on. They're out in Faneuil Hall most of the year - although with all the dancing they're doing, they probably stay warmer than all of us suckers standing around in 30 degree weather watching them! I have one more photo of them from a slightly different perspective that I'll show you tomorrow...

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Saturday was World Pillow Fight Day, and so of course I headed to Copley Square to make sure that you guys got to see some of the action (apparently I really do go for the in depth reporting, George). That's not snow on the ground (thank GOD!), it's the aftermath of the first burst pillow. And that guy in the middle? The giraffe holding the state flag? He's the one that started it all when he ran into the square with a bullhorn on it's siren setting. Click the photo to enlarge, and make note of the other photog in the photo. There were almost as many people there to take photos as there were to pillow fight!

I took a LOT of photos that day - so many that I haven't made it through all of them myself! Luckily for you, there are heaps of photos of the event here, so feel free to check those out. There was also an article in the Boston Globe about how this kind of spontaneous event is a new trend, and you can read that here.

Monday, March 24, 2008

One of the reasons I love Boston is that you can't turn around without coming across some little bit of history that you didn't know before...and that statement is especially true when you're standing on a street in Beacon Hill. I was walking down the street just taking pictures of the houses that I liked when I saw this little plaque on a fence. Since I had never heard of Sarah Wyman Whitman before, I had to do some (internet) research, so here's what I learned:

Sarah Wyman Whitman is famous for her stained glass and paintings, some of which are part of the collection at the MFA here in Boston. Some of her stained glass windows hang beside Tiffany windows at Memorial Hall at Harvard.

In looking for info on Sarah Wyman Whitman, part of what I found is about the house itself! Turns out that the house was, at one point, the club house for the Club of Odd Volumes - a society of bibliophiles that started in 1887.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

This little guy was waiting for it's owner outside of Black Ink on Charles Street the other night. Because I know you guys care, Black Ink is one of my favorite little shops on Charles Street - it's full of things that you love, but would never need!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Across from the building I work in, there is a Starbucks. It's more of less in the middle of the Financial District, and across the street from the Starbucks there is a small park. During business hours, you can find at least two bike messengers at all times in or around this Starbucks. They lean their bikes against the building and head inside to stay warm and get a coffee during the winter. You can see a few of them walking out of my photo (I don't think that was a coincidence!), and they're heading into a little nook where they often hang out to smoke or stay out of the rain or snow. During the summer, they line their bikes up along the fence of the park across the street and hang out on the benches there.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

I keep passing by flowerbeds like these (this one is on Beacon St), and it gives me a glimmer of hope that the cold weather might actually go away sometimes soon. You can even see a bit of purple blossoms in the top center of the photo (click to enlarge).

On my pessimistic days, I walk by these flowerbeds and think "I bet those flowers DIE because it's so freezing cold out!". Really, it's been in the high 30's/low 40's lately and it's not really that cold, but it's also been wet, which always makes it feel colder than it really is. The wind doesn't help either, and today was a windy one.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Fenix's post got me thinking about the fire bombings in JP from the past few years, which had me digging out the series of photos I took of the First Baptist Church a while back. The fire here was NOT arson, it was an accident, but took place only a few months prior to the fire bombing at El Oriental de Cuba (see Fenix's post). It was in January, and the church and surrounding area looked almsot fairy tale-esque for quite some time after the fire because all of the water used to fight it had frozen in layers on both the shell of the building and the surround trees/land. Steve Garfield (of Universal Hub fame...and videoblogging fame, for that matter) as some great photos of it here. This was the second fire in this church's history, and they now have their services in a trailer that sits just out of the bottom left of the photo above. There's a lot of info on the fire and the church in the Boston Globe article you can find here. I just realized that I had posted another photo of the same church here. Oops!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Another "aerial" view from the State Room! I liked this photo the best because it gives you a bird's eye view of a few things we've shown you before - the Holocaust Memorial (one and two), the Union Oyster House sign, and the farmers market at Haymarket (which starts at the top center of this photo and takes up that street, then turns lefts along the backside of the block of buildings in the photo).

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Boston Daily Photo is one year old today! I ran over to Fiore's Italian Bakery on South Street in Jamaica Plain this afternoon to got some cupcakes to celebrate. I took a few quick photos while I was at Fiore's, because I saw something there that struck me as being "very JP".

JP is a hugely diverse community - it's residents are pretty evenly split between students, artists, lesbians/gays, Hispanics, and yuppies. Needless to say, it's a pretty interesting mix! JP is also very "earthy crunchy", if you will, and this is made obvious when you take a look at a number of the local businesses. Hatched sells eco-friendly children's goods, JP Licks and Canto 6 serve fair trade, organic coffee and teas, City Feed is a neighborhood grocery/cafe that specializes in natural food and fair trade coffee, Harvest Co-op is a community owned grocery store that specializes in organic and natural foods. This kind of mentality is ever-present in JP, so when I saw the half dozen items at Fiore's that were labeled as vegan suggestions (including the one pictured above), I thought "yup...that's JP for you!"

Friday, March 14, 2008

I love seeing live music, and I don't do it nearly as often as I used to. Luckily for me, I have some friends that are very good about keeping track of when their fav acts are in town and letting the rest of us know. Now, I love watching a band perform live, but what I really love is watching a band that doesn't just perform, but interacts with each other and the audience. I'll throw out here some of my favs to see live, so you can keep your eyes peeled for when their in your neck of the woods - Guster, Reel Big Fish, Panic at the Disco, They Might Be Giants, and the talented lady that you're looking at: Missy Higgins.

Missy is an Australian singer/songwriter. She played The Paradise, and our friend Ros (who is also Australian) decided that seeing Missy would be the perfect way to celebrate her birthday. Happy Birthday (again) to Ros! To the rest of you: do yourself a favor and listen to this woman sing. I'm currently loving 100 Round the Bend from her new album, but anything you see on that page I linked won't be bad (except the few videos that snuck in and aren't Missy!).

Aside from just being talented and wonderful to listen to, the awesome part of seeing her live was hearing the stories in between the songs - about her experience writing the songs, what they're about, why she wrote them. The best stories though, were about her experiences touring - her first time hearing a Boston accent and realizing that it just sounds funny, but then there's a few "Aussie" words in there every once in a while (Aussies and Bostonians drop their "r"s in the same manner), or about how a few nights ago in NYC she thought she was witnessing a drug deal, but really it was a guy that tried scalping her tickets to her own show.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

This is what the old Filene's building looks like these days (Here's an older photo of the same side of the building). I love how the iron workers always find a way to label the buildings they are working on - click to enlarge so you can see the "signature" here. Demo is kind of like an archaeological dig - you wouldn't find things like this if you weren't tearing down the walls, right??

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

These Monumental Works by Anthony Quinn sit in front of the Intercontinental Hotel on Atlantic Avenue. Quinn is also a very well practiced actor, and has an impressive collection of works that you can check out on his site. The news blurb on Anthony Quinn's website reads as follows:

February 27, 2008InterContinental Hotel BostonAnthony QuinnFoundation opens a public exhibition program at InterContinental Hotel Boston. Sponsored by Carnegie Abbey Club, Paolino Properties, Athena Group, and Boston Redevelopment Authority, the exhibition brings art into the public realm and celebrates the global community and human spirit through Anthony Quinn’s Monumental Works created in 1991 along with additional sculpture. The exhibition is a realization of a goal created by Anthony Quinn Foundation (AQF), to make artwork more prominent by making it part of the everyday experience (outside the walls of museums).

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I made my way along the Rose Kennedy Greenway on my way to the T tonight (after a ridiculously D-E-LICIOUS dinner with a friend at Sel de la Terre!) and this sign cracked me up! Could have been the wine. Regardless, I had to stop and take a photo. Click to enlarge!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

This is the very tempting window of Artu on Charles Street in Beacon Hill. I walk by here three times a week when I go to the chiropractor, and every time I do a double take thinking about how inviting and delicious this place looks. I'm going to need to actually eat there sometime soon!

Click to enlarge so you can check out the plates they are showing off!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

This is the second part of the ASPCA Monument - the memorial to George Thorndike Angell. Angell was a lawyer and philanthropist who was born in Sturbridge, MA, attended Darmouth College and Harvard Law School, and then practiced law in Boston. In 1868 he founded the MSPCA. There are also two animal medical centers that bear Angell's name - one on South Huntington in Jamaica Plain and the other on the island of Nantucket.

Friday, March 7, 2008

In PO Square, just across the street from the grassy bit where everyone flocks to have lunch when it's warm out, is the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Monument. Let me tell you that I would NEVER have known what this was and had never spent the time to actually look at it instead of just walk by or sit on the benches around it if the fire escape plan for my old office didn't involve meeting at the ASPCA Monument. I first saw the plan and thought "who even knew that was an ASPCA Monument in that little triangle?!" Last week I ran to CVS for some tissues and grabbed my camera so I could get a few shots of this since it is just across from the CVS at the corner of Congress and Milk.

The monument is essentially two parts: the part you see here, which is a circular slab of granite with pond scene depicted on top of it and a quote about protecting animals carved around the base of it, and a large flagpole and monument to George Thorndike Angell, the found of the MSPCA. I'll show you that tomorrow!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

It poured earlier that day, rainy winter days are depressing, but on my way back from lunch (take out at Anna's Taqueria, yummy cheap fresh-mex), everything was glistening!! I really like how even though the sun is hiding behind some clouds, you can see a clear shadow of the tree.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Last week Two weeks ago (Wednesday to be exact) was the last total lunar eclipse until 2010, and Sheepie (being from Australia) isn't one to brave the cold, so she sent her co-worker's boyfriend, Troy, out to capture it for us. Okay, just kidding - he got the photos, and she coerced him to share them with us so we could choose our favorite and post it here.

Click to enlarge! One of the bright "dots" on the bottom right (Troy, correct me if I'm wrong!) is Saturn.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Two doors up from Dark Horse Antiques, who had the cute pop bottles in their windows, is Flat Black Coffee Co. There is a guy that works there named Chris, and he makes the BEST iced mocha on earth. Flat Black serves mostly shade grown, fair trade, and organic coffees. They also have a number of delicious teas, which you can also buy loose if you'd like (I'm a huge fan of the Moroccan Mint Green Tea). They roast their own beans here at the Dorchester location, and if you're downtown and need an iced mocha fix, they have a second location in the financial district. They're opening their third location, also in Dorchester, before the end of the month.

You wouldn't think much about a coffee shop's windows display-wise, but these guys do a great job of decorating for holidays/season, and I think the coffee beans in the planters on their stoop are downright awesome. I love having an option of a locally owned, delicious product producing, creative, community involved company in my little neck of the woods!

Monday, March 3, 2008

The Lower Mills Branch of the Boston Public Library is located just behind the Common Ground Cafe I showed you a few days ago. The Lower Mills Branch is a small branch and about half of it is the kids/young adult section. The majority of the adult books they have are mystery/crime. There's not much of a fiction selection if you aren't interested in mystery/crime, although my boyfriend managed to find about 6 months worth of books there before he ran out of material. I haven't had a lot of luck finding books I'm interested in, so I acquire my books through other means (buying, from friends) and then donate them! Hopefully someone else will benefit from my awesome book choices down the road. ;)

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Since we saw the Common Ground Cafe yesterday, let's hang out in Lower Mills for a little bit. These adorable little bottles were in the window of Darkhorse Antiques a few weeks ago and I couldn't walk past without stopping to take a photos. Darkhorse is on the corner of Adams St and Washington St in Lower Mills. It's a great place that is overflowing with antiques and fun to poke around in. It's one of those stores that is so full of stuff you have to be careful when you're turning around, and I love places like that!

Darkhorse has a GREAT sign on the front of their shop, and I'll have to get a shot of it because I don't have one. The first time I saw their sign, I thought for sure they were a little pub, until I looked down and saw the fabulous antiques in their windows!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

This is the mural outside of the Common Ground Cafe, in Dorchester Lower Mills. The Common Ground Cafe serves all organic food and is run by the Twelve Tribes - a Christian community. They have a number of cafe locations throughout the US, including a second MA location in Hyannis (Cape Cod). They have communities throughout the world, including France, Australia, Spain, Canada, Brazil, the UK, Germany, and Argentina. Each of their communities seems to have a business associated with it - cafes, markets selling organic/eco-friendly goods, or a family outfitter. Here's a little blurb from the Twelve Tribes site about their communities:

We live together in households, clans, and tribes, sharing our possessions in common. We strongly support marriage, and we teach our children at home. We dress modestly, eat wholesome food, work hard, pray together, and celebrate our life in music and dance…

Click on the image above to enlarge and see the detail in the mural. You can see our other photos of murals here, and photos we've taken of graffiti here.